They had captured me close to the border. I was there to look for edible plants I could take back home and walked into a lizard scouting party. I tried to get away but they were just too quick. The only reason they let me live is so their chief c
ould question me back at their village.
That’s how I ended up a few days later in the middle of curious lizard folk. Children peeked at me from behind their parents, elder lizards were discussing the times they came into contact with a human. I looked around because I was just as curious about them.
We call them lizards but they don’t look a lot like regular lizards. They have long necks which makes them around one head taller than man, but their shoulder height is lower. Their heads are the same size as ours, have a sharp snout and mouth wi
th tiny sharp teeth, horns pointed back above their eyes with a few larger scales on their forehead. The medium length hair runs from their head down their long neck, sometimes along their back all the way to the tip of their long tails.
Their homes were made from branches weaved between short poles. Roof covered with large, leathery leaves. Cooking was done outside on fires under covers. At the centre of the village was a covered area with logs to sit and lean against.
The young female warrior who had caught me led me to the covered area where a couple of elder lizard sats and looked at me stroking the short grey tuft under their jaws. I bowed a little as a greeting, feeling that despite being a prisoner I’d try to stay civil.
It had an effect because I heard they kill humans who are captured. Although it makes me wonder how anyone could tell us that if they’re supposed to be dead.
‘Why you here?’ one of the lizards asked to my surprise.
‘You speak our language?’ I asked.
‘Yes, we learned from humans long time ago. But we still know some.’
I gave a nod. ‘I’m glad to hear that.’
‘Why you here?’
‘Ah, I was gathering plants to see if I could get them to grow at my home for food.’
‘Where home?’
I tried to remember how long it’s been. ‘About twenty days from the place you captured me, so twentythree days give or take.’
‘Give and take what?’
‘Ah.’ I said nodding. ‘It’s an expression, meaning it could be a little more or less than.’
The elders nodded and spoke in their language amongst themselves.
‘Why go so far from home?’
‘If I can get the plants to grow at my home, I don’t have to travel so far anymore and I can trade them for other things.’
‘Are there more humans here?’
I shook my head. ‘Not that I know of.’
‘What plants?’ the other elder asked.
‘Plants to eat. Or for medicine.’
The elders went into a discussion again.
‘You know lots about plants?’
‘I know more than others. I just don’t know if that is a lot.’
The elders nodded. One of them stood up and came up close to me.
‘You will stay and be medicine man.’ he said and pushed me back against the female lizard behind me. ‘You will teach Shezza.’
‘What?’ I asked, a little distracted by the bouncy feeling against my back.
‘Our medicine woman dead before she teach Shezza. Now you teach.’
‘But, I only know about human use for plants, not you, ehm, your kind.’
‘You know more than rest of Funia. You best man.’
‘Can’t you-‘ I started but he snorted to show that there was no discussion.
He looked at Shezza and said something that sounded like she was supposed to watch me from now on and do unpleasant things if I tried to get away. I wasn’t about to test if I was right. They’re fast and strong and I’ve seen her throw her spear to
skewer prey.
She cut my bonds and nudged me to walk. She lead me to one of the huts at the centre and spread the cloth hanging in the entrance.
Inside was enough light coming from the opening between roof and wall. There were plenty of bowls with various plant contens, stacks of cloth, different stones and bones. It felt like a witch’s hut from fairy tales.
She let out something of a loud whistle. No too long after another female warrior came to us. I saw the crude bandage around her arm.
‘She hurt a lot.’ Shezza said. ‘You heal.’
I thought her higher pitched voice was pretty pleasant. I unwrapped the bandages and looked at the wound.
‘Animal bite?’
The warrior nodded.
I gestured for her to sit down next to a pot of water. With it I cleaned her wound. It didn’t look like it was infected and I searched the contents of the bowls for the weed that would numb pain. Luckily there were some of the leaves I was lookin
g for.
I crushed a few and added a little water to make a pulp. This I smeared on the wound and bandaged her properly with clean cloth.
‘Chew on one when you feel pain.’ I said handing her several of the same leaves. ‘The hurt should stay away after a few days and the the bandage can be removed.’
She nodded and gave me a bow before leaving. I looked at Shezza and thought I saw a little smile.
‘This can be used directly on wounds and be eaten to lessen pain.’ I said as I handed her a leaf.
She nodded in understanding and studied it closely.
I turned to the other bowls and started sorting them into those I knew and those I didn’t, then those that I knew in their usage like medicine, spices, poison, food. By the time I had finished it had become dusk.
‘So..’ I said feeling a bit awkward. ‘Where can I, you know?’
She looked at me tilting her head.
‘To relieve myself?’ I asked hinting I had full bladder.
She nodded and gestured to follow her. I did and was shown a shallow pit where I could guess what was under that layer of sand. I untied the rope holding up my pants but held on to them as she stayed next to me.
‘Sorry, but it feels a little weird when you stand next to me.’
‘Why?’
‘Well, I just can’t do it while I’m being watched. Can you leave me alone for a moment?’
She shook her head. ‘I will watch you so you won’t run away.’
‘Look, I’m not going to run away. It’s too hard to do this with someone next to me.’
‘It is not.’ she said turning around, bending a little lifting her tail, and peed into the pit.
I looked away and sighed.
‘Now you.’
Feeling I had no choice unless I wanted to pee my pants later on I turned away a little and let down my pants enough to be able to pee. I could feel her eyes upon me and tried to relax by breathing deep a couple of times. It worked after a little
while and I felt quite relieved.
‘We go sleep now.’ she said looking at the sky.
‘Right.’ I said and we returned to the hut.
There was an area covered by furs.
‘That the bed?’ I asked.
She nodded.
‘I guess that’s it then.’
She removed the wrapping around her chest and her loincloth.
‘Whoa!’ I said turning away. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Sleep.’
‘But, here?’
‘Yes. Need to watch you.’
‘I understand, but you can sleep in your own hut. No need to watch me here.’
‘Will not let you escape.’
I shook my head. ‘I won’t try to escape, honestly.’
‘Humans not to be trusted.’ she said standing behind me. ‘Down on the bed.’
I sighed and sat down. She leaned against my back tying my hands together, then tied me to one of the poles.
‘Great.’ I said and gave up, lying down and just wanting to get some sleep.
She crawled against me wrapping one arm around me.
‘You’re sleeping with me?’
‘Yes. I will know when you try to sneak out.’
“Forget it.” I thought and just shut my eyes. ‘Good night.’

When I woke up she had already untied me and was preparing some breakfast. I rubbed my face and wrists and she handed me a bowl with meat.
‘Thanks.’ I said and was glad to eat something again.
I took a good look at her while I had the time. She had a slightly dark green skin like most I’ve seen, light grey hair running all the way from her head to the tip of her long, slender tail, a tuft of the same on her ample chest, and blue eyes.
‘Is there a place to wash myself?’ I asked.
‘River at the back of the village.’
‘I’d like to do that first. I feel very dirty after all these days.’
‘Then we go after eating.’
She led me to a small river and as I expected she didn’t take her eyes off me. I undressed quickly and went into the water feeling glad to wash the dirt and sweat off of me. I soaked my head a couple of times and shook my head.
‘Much better.’ I said.
‘Yes.’ she said behind me.
I looked back and saw she had taken a bath as well, then looked away from her quickly. ‘Are you going to be this close to me all the time?’
‘Yes. Need to watch you and learn.’
‘Right. Don’t you have a mate to live with?’
‘Shezza not ready to mate yet.’
‘Ah.’ I said.
I finished cleaning myself, then walked out of the water. ‘I’ll wait here until you’re finished.’ I said getting dressed. I figured I’d let her take her time and not unduly agitate her.
I just watched the village until I heard her get out of the water and come up next to me later.
‘So, they wanted you to become the next medicine woman?’
She nodded. ‘She teach me things when I was little. I was best choice.’
‘But do you want to learn? Do you want to become a medicine woman?’
She pondered for a short while. ‘Yes. Want to help tribe.’
I could see her determination. ‘All right. I’ll teach you what I’ve learned for humans, but we’ll have to test if it works for funia first.’
She nodded and we went back to the hut where I started teaching her the basics of herbal medicine first.
I had her creating salves for every day use while I washed a large flat stone. I placed it on a couple of larger rocks, put up a fire underneath and waited for the stone to become hot.
‘What you doing?’
‘You’ll see.’ I said as I took out a small bag.
I rubbed a bit of the contents on a couple of pieces of meat, laid them on the stone and let it grill until it was a nice colour brown.
Shezza watched and sniffed the scent. ‘Smells different. Geting hungry.’
I nodded and tested the meat. ‘It’s ready.’ I said, cut the meat into pieces and placed them on a flat piece of stone I warmed up on top of the big stone.
‘Try this.’ I said handing the stone plate to her.
She sniffed, tasted one piece, then ate the rest like she hadn’t eaten for days.
‘Good?’ I asked.
‘Good!’ she said licking the stone, then handing it over. ‘More?’
I snickered. ‘As long as there’s meat.’ I said and put more meat on the stone.
‘How?’ she asked watching me using the herbs from the bag on the meat.
‘Some plants give extra flavour to food. I used some of my favorites.’
I noticed more funia had smelled the scent and came looking for the source. I showed them what I did and they left to come back with more meat and fish for me to prepare and grill.
While I cooked I showed how to set up a stone grill and showed the herbs I have for cooking. They were curious and eager to try out these new flavours.
Before I knew it the whole village had joined us. Everyone was eating and having a good time. I watched kids playing around, the elders being served by a couple of females, the couple of males comparing strength and the females arranging colourfu
l feathers into their hair. It felt nice and comfortable even if I was a human prisoner here.
When the last ones had retired for the night I yawned and stretched feeling rather satisfied. I looked forward to a good night’s sleep, undressed and made myself comfortable when Shezza dangled a piece of rope in front of me.
‘Really?’
She nodded. ‘No taking chance of you running away.’
‘Still not trusting me, eh?’ I said and sighed.
She tied me up again and laid down next to me.
“At least I get the soft and warm feeling against my back.” I thought and fell asleep.

She was a good student and I was able to teach her what I knew about plants and food. Luckily most common remedies for humans worked for funia but I explained how to test new things by using tiny amounts at first and increasing it when there were
no ill side effects.
She taught me some of the habits of funia and I got more familiar with life in this village. They weren’t much different from humans but for the difference with few males compared to the amount of males.
I didn’t have much to complain apart from being tied up every night despite trying to convince Shezza I wouldn’t run away.

One day I wanted to explore an area of the jungle I hadn’t seen yet but felt like it would provide a new discovery.
I found a new plant but there wasn’t anything else we hadn’t seen already. When the sun was high we decided to take a break and eat. We had taken grilled meat with us which I had prepared during breakfast. Shezza found a clearing with a thick log
to sit upon. She was about to sit down when I saw a snake threatening to bite.
‘Watch out!’ I shouted but it was too late.
Shezza yelled out as I grabbed a firm stick and shoved the snake as far as I could. I recognised it as poisenous and knew I had to treat her right away. She leaned against a tree squeezing her buttock to fight the pain.
‘Let me see! I’ll try to suck out the venom!’ I said.
She looked back at me with a pained face. ‘That not good!’
‘I’m refuse to let you die so let me see before it’s too late!’ I said.
She looked away and bend over more, lifting her tail. I saw the bitemark just above her buttline on the inside. Tiny droplets of blood were visible. I didn’t hesitate putting my mouth around the wound and sucked hard trying to get as much fluid o
ut of it. I squeezed below on her thigh and above on her buttock to slow down the flow of blood while I sucked and spit blood. I kept checking the area to see if it would swell up and turn a different colour but it didn’t.
I felt around the wound when I suddenly heard her moan.
‘Are you okay!?’ I asked worried she’d get sick.
She looked back at me with a troubled expression but said nothing. Then it dawned on me and I looked at where I held my hands. While sucking the wound I must have rubbed her private parts and noticed her slighty moist slit now.
‘I’m sorry!’ I said and let go of her moving back.
She straightened herself and turned around feeling embarrassed.
‘I didn’t mean to..’
She shook her head.
‘But, you still need treatment to prevent infection of the wound.’ I said taking my basket, pulling out a couple of berries and showing her.
She understood and nodded.
‘Thanks.’ I said and started preparing the berries. ‘I hate the idea of you getting an infection.’
When the salve was ready and I had ripped the cloth I had to bandages I asked her to turn around and bend again. She obliged a little reluctantly and I knelt down to treat her. I tried not to look but now I noticed her strong scent and how her sl
it was even more moist. A tension between my legs reminded me I was supposed to treat her wound and I cursed myself for get
ting distracted. I applied the salve carefully, then tied a pad with the salve against the wound with bandage around her leg and waist.
‘Ready.’ I said.
She turned around just as I stood up and she saw the swelling in my pants just as I remembered it was there.
‘Sorry!’ I said turning away. ‘I didn’t mean to get excited.’
She wrapped her arms around me. ‘Thank you.’
‘No problem.’

We walked back slowly to the village where they asked what happened to her seeing the bandages. She explained and I could see some females smirking as they looked at me. I let them as I went into the hut sorting out the contents of the basket.
A little later she came in putting away her things.
‘I will need to check in the morning to make sure you’re healing fine.’
She nodded.
‘Let’s sleep.’ I said undressing and sat down on the bed. ‘You need rest.’
I heard her get ready and lie down on the bed.
‘Aren’t you going to tie me?’
‘You going to make sure I’m better tomorrow?’
‘Yes?’
‘Then Shezza trusts you to stay.’
I looked back at her at the edge of the bed. ‘I guess I’m happy to hear that.’ I said, then got ready to get some sleep.

The next morning I checked her wound which showed no signs of getting worse. I managed to keep my eyes on the wound but her scent was enough to get me to react while I cleaned her skin carefully.
‘It’s not getting worse so I think it’ll heal soon enough.’ I said trying not to think about the rest of her body and the sensation of having it against mine at night.
I failed of course and grabbed a basket to keep in front of me.
‘I’m going to take a dip in the river.’ I said and walked out.
She quickly came after me. ‘You not go alone. Shezza need to guard you.’
‘Didn’t you trust me not to go away?’
‘Maybe you leave now I’m better..’
I stood still because something felt wrong.
I looked at her. ‘I’m not going to leave you.’
She smiled gently. I continued walking feeling a tad confused.
At the river I undressed and took a dive. When I came up I saw her washing herself and watched her for a while. She saw me and it seemed she smiled looking away again. I shook my head, dived once more, then washed myself and dressed while she got ready.
We walked back to the village and I noticed some females acting different than usual. It’s like they were more careful of what they did. We grabbed what we needed to hunt and gather food from the hut and wanted to get out when one of the few male
s stood in front.
He saw Shezza, came closer, sniffed the air around her and smirked. She stepped back but he grabbed her by her wrist and wanted to pull her away. She protested and hit him but he yanked her hard making her trip and fall on the ground.
‘Hey! Let her go!’ I shouted feeling very angry all of a sudden.
He looked at me. ‘Silent, human worm! Or I’ll kill you before I mate!’
She looked at me with pleading eyes and I finally understood. The females were in heat. I didn’t know if she wanted me to stay out of it for my sake, or if she wanted my help but I definitely wouldn’t stay out of it.
‘She’s mine!’
He looked a little surprised at me as did anyone who heard me.
He laughed hard, then stared straight at me. ‘You want to fight over her?’
I knew it would end up bad for me but there was no way I’d let him touch her. ‘Yes.’
He let her wrist go and took a step toward me. ‘Then you die and I wil take her.’ he said and jumped at me.
I ducked, jumped up and headbutted him in his stomach. He tripped more from surprise than hurt and I threw sand in his eyes.
I knew I had to fight dirty to have any chance of beating him.
He hissed while blinking and rubbing his eyes and I hit his snout as hard as I could. He yelled out in pain and I pummeled him while I got the chance. He recovered quickly though and hit me square on the jaw making me fly back. He stood up and Icould see he was furious.
He wiped the blood coming from his nose. ‘You dead.’
I figured I would.
He came at me swinging his fists which I deflected at first but his size was too much and he hit me with all his strength several times. I wiped the blood from my face crawling on the ground. He lifted his fist ready to hit me, then Shezza hit hi
m with her spear.
He looked back at her cluthing his arm where she hit him, hissed and smacked her hard. I got furious again and jumped his back hitting his neck. He rolled over making me lose my grip, grabbed a sharp stone used for cutting from one of the cooking fires nearby and wanted to jump at me again.
A loud hiss stopped him.
One of the elders came up and looked disapproving at the scene. The male hissed at him but shut up after another sharp hiss from the elder.
He looked at me while Shezza helped me get up. ‘You fight over Shezza.’
I looked at her. ‘You okay?’
She nodded.
I looked at the elder. ‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘I’m not going to let her get hurt if I can help it.’
‘You said Shezza yours, but you no Funia. She no human.’
I felt I blushed but it would be hidden by the dirt. ‘I guess I like her more.’
The elder nodded.
‘You rather have him?’ he asked Shezza.
She looked at me and nodded.
‘Then I let you have her.’ he said.
The male hissed at him. The elder hissed back but the male ran at him with the stone in his hand. The next moment he impaled himself on the spear Shezza and I had aimed at him to defend the elder.
He sagged onto the ground, his life bleeding out of him.
The elder looked at him and nodded at us. He spoke to some others and gestured to take the body away.
‘He maybe more bad for future than human and funia together.’
An elder female took his arm and he smiled at her. Then they walked away together.
I sighed deep feeling very relieved and the pain demanded attention. Shezza and I went back into the hut where I looked at her first despite her protesting that I should be looked at first.
She got hit on her cheek so I applied a little cooling cream on it. I stroked it gently and looked her in her eyes. She looked right back and without thinking I leaned closer and kissed her softly. She looked surprised at me.
‘Sorry! I wanted to kiss you!’ I said looking down.
‘Kiss?’
I nodded. ‘Something humans do when they like each other a lot.’
She pondered for a moment. ‘Then Shezza want to kiss too.’
I looked up at her smiling softly, caressed her cheeks and kissed her again. She learned quickly and after a long time we had explored every kiss possible. She stroked me slowly while I searched every sensitive piece of her skin. She moaned hard
while I got her to climax. After she got her breath back she turned on all fours looking seductively at me. I was about to burst and would die before refusing her invitation.
We spend the entire night exploring each other’s bodies and pleasures. Feeling dead tired but completely happy in the morning I put on my pants to get out to relieve myself. I barely stepped out when I saw several females and one male sitting jus
t a bit away looking at me.
‘Ehh, good morning?’
They grinned at me.
‘You strange, human.’ the male said. ‘You make females jealous.’
‘What? How?’ I asked.
‘Females want to be happy as Shezza.’
‘Ah.’ I said. ‘I see.’ I pondered how to respond to that. ‘We could have a talk between men after I get some sleep.’ I said and went to empty my bladder.

After I got back Shezza entangled me and we slept for a long time. When we woke up in the evening we went out quickly, then she dragged me back to bed where we repeated the night before.
After waking up we got out of the hut walking hand in hand to the river, made love again, then went back to eat.
A couple of females gestured to come eat with them and we accepted. I understood enough of the way they talked to Shezza that I knew they were talking about what we had done.
In the meantime the couple of males including the elders asked me how I got a female to keep wanting to mate all this time.

Much later the young males invited the females to show them what they had learned and soon enough it was just Shezza and me at the fire looking up at the stars in the sky.
‘Are you happy?’ I asked holding her hand, stroking it gently with my thumb.
She nodded and we both knew we’d live our lifetime together as the strangest couple.